After reading a few articles yesterday and some of the comments to these articles, it ocurred to me that I may have a different perception of our responsibility as citizens than others. One of the comments that stuck out to me, was that they believed a law should be passed to make voting mandatory. I understood the concept of wishing everyone to participate in their government and credit that author with pursuing a noble cause. At the same time I do not believe that is what our nation is all about. This also made me wonder exactly how most view their responsibility to their nation.

In my opinion, America is a child. Not just any child, but my child. Remember in the scheme of things Egypt, Rome, and other nations stood for thousands of years and we are only working toward a few hundred. We are, what I hope, is a nation in our infancy with a bright future ahead.

Like any child this child needs to be loved, taught, praised, cherished, and sometimes disciplined. If your child was hungry you would feed them, that is what our taxes are for. If we are wealthy we can afford better food for her, and most likely you would say of your own children nothing is too good for them. We teach our children values at home and send them to school to learn to provide a better future than we had. With our votes and our ability to speak out, we teach our country. When our child mis-behaves we use it as learning opportunity and discipline when needed. Once again, with America we have a responsibility to do the same. We try to change those behaviors that are unjust through our activism and votes. When our child accomplishes something good we praise them, as we should prasie our country for all the great acheivements we have accomplished and when our nation embarks on new and great endeavors that help our citizens and the world. We cherish our children as we should cherish our nation.

Remember, we are all the parents of this great nation as long as we are on the journey with her. It is our responsibility to be a responsible parent and be involved with the growth of this child no differently than our own children. My belief is that we do not need to be told what to do to help our nation, but we need to take personal responsibility to do so. My opinion is that if we fail to participate, take an interest in our nations future, use our vote to direct, provide our fair share, and work to make this nation the best it can be, we are doing nothing more than neglecting your own children. We put up with a lot of crap from our kids but we never give up on them, why would we do that with our child America?

If you think about it in these terms then how are taking care of this child?